2014 Pouilly-Fuissé Clos Varambon

Claire and Fabio Gazeau-Montrasi were about three days away from starting to pick their 2016 crop when I visited them on September 12. According to Fabio, "we'll be lucky to make ten hectoliters per hectare this year," as this estate in Fuissé was "killed" by the August 13 hailstorm. The 2015s, meanwhile, were still fermenting their sugars, and Montrasi told me that he might have to finish the wines with commercial yeasts.

I tasted the 2014s here, and they are among the stars of the vintage in the Mâconnais. Montrasi expressed the opinion that 2012, 2013 and 2014 "are not very different" but added that the '14s "have the best balance and are easier to approach." In comparison, he went on, the 2013s are stricter due to the low yields and late harvest while the 2012s are fatter and richer. "The 2014s have taken on more layers and nuance with aging and are more complex and talkative today than they were a year ago," he explained.

Claire and Fabio Gazeau-Montrasi, who took over the Château des Rontets in 1995, own 6 hectares of vines in Pouilly-Fuissé, including the prime 5.5-hectare clos in the lieu-dit Les Rontets, which is situated at an altitude of 350 meters at the top of the hill on the south side of the Fuissé valley. Beneath less than a foot of silt and clay topsoil is a layer of marl and friable limestone, with hard-limestone bedrock underneath. This low-vigor, north-facing vineyard is very exposed to wind (very dry years can be tough here) but benefits from superb drainage, so botrytis rarely poses a problem. Most of the vines are at least 40 years old but some date back to the 1920s and others were planted just after World War II. The Gazeau-Montrasis also own a 0.5-hectare vineyard just to the south of Les Rontets, planted on granite in an east-facing vineyard that’s protected from the north wind, as well as half a hectare of vines in Saint-Amour. The estate has been certified organic (by Ecocert) since 2005.

Fabio Montrasi told me that 2013 witnessed the estate’s latest vintage ever; he finished harvesting the Monday after the early October rains. “Those with too much yield did not get ripe fruit in 2013,” he told me, adding that he made just 23 hectoliters per hectare. (Even in 2014, yields were just 33 h/h owing to a stiff north wind and cold temperatures during the flowering.) He finds 2013 similar to 2010, as both vintages are characterized by high acidity. In fact, he told me that he prefers 2013 to 2014 “for its greater vitality; the vintage has a higher gear than 2014.”

Montrasi works without enzymes or cultured yeasts and ferments his wines in French oak containers, none new, of varying size, from standard barriques to 30-hectoliter vats. Except for the Clos Varambon, which is intended to offer early accessibility, the Pouilly-Fuissés normally get an élevage of 20 to 22 months. (And Montrasi bottled the 2014 Varambon earlier than usual “because we had no wine left.”)